Do you think it's legal?

My friend worked for a Prop firm in Wall Str for 4 months, then he wanted to quit. But the firm wouldn't give him his account balance, because they said that it's CBOE rule that the risk capital contributed should be kept for one year. Is this a scam or common? Can anyone answer this question?

And there is another question:
I recently received an offer of Prop trader,
the offer is:
I contribute Risk capital: 3K
Firm give me :50K
profit split: 80/20, they took 20%
Commision: 1.5 / 100shares(round)
7.5/ 1000shares (round)
No formal training, but a mentor who train you everyday.
Do you guys think this is a good offer?
Thanks for your answers!

But the guy in the company said it's the lowest commission (1.5/ 100 shares) everyone uses that.

And he said if I contribute more, I get more profit split. I can get 95% profit split if contribute 10K.

More...

He is lying to your face. That commission <i>might</i> have been market rate in, say, 1998. If you contribute 10k to interactive brokers you get .005, with enough leverage to still damage yourself at your stage of the learning curve. You don't get past the pdt rule in equities at retail, but you have the option of also trading futures (which does). In prop nowadays, about .004 - .007 is around entry.

Aside from that, profit split does not matter at your level, commission does. Trying to lure you into giving him even more $, which is guaranteed to go directly to him, by negotiating on the split and not the commission, is a gimmick.

Trust me, many of us know what he is doing. It's called "churn and burn." Do your due diligence. This is 100% a losing bet for you.

$1.50 per 100 shares? If you do good enough volume that is the rate you should be paying per 1,000 shares.
For newbies like yourself starting off at low volume anywhere from .004-.005 per share with 99% payout is a decent starting point. Find a firm you are comfortable with and offers exceptional support and guidance it would be worth it paying the few extra bucks a month for the .005 rate. All in all your offer sucks, and at those rates you will lose most of it in the market, and the prop firm will make a few bucks from it, which is all they seem to care about at those rates!

Quote from BigBang:

My friend worked for a Prop firm in Wall Str for 4 months, then he wanted to quit. But the firm wouldn't give him his account balance, because they said that it's CBOE rule that the risk capital contributed should be kept for one year. Is this a scam or common? Can anyone answer this question?

And there is another question:
I recently received an offer of Prop trader,
the offer is:
I contribute Risk capital: 3K
Firm give me :50K
profit split: 80/20, they took 20%
Commision: 1.5 / 100shares(round)
7.5/ 1000shares (round)
No formal training, but a mentor who train you everyday.
Do you guys think this is a good offer?
Thanks for your answers!